After
decades of warlord rule, Japanese occupation and a debilitating civil
war, the China the Communist government inherited was bankrupt and in
shambles. Despite the difficulties, Mao’s government made impressive improvements
in their early years. Central to their political ideology was land
reform, where land was taken from landlords and redistributed among
the peasant population. Already implemented in Red Army controlled areas,
after liberation it was extended to the rest of the country.

In the
cities, the Communists steered industrial production toward heavy industries
and formed state-controlled unions. Workers were promised the "iron
rice bowl" of lifetime employment, housing, health care, pension
plans and education for their children.

By 1953,
land reform was complete and collectivization of land began. By 1958,
agricultural production was unable to keep up with population increases.
Dissatisfied with the slumping agricultural production and slow pace of
industrialization, Mao turned to mass mobilization to speed things up.
He called upon every man, woman and child in China to help increase China’s
industrial and agricultural output. The resulting Great Leap Forward
during which Mao promised China would surpass Britain in steel production
in 15 years, and the US in 20, resulted in disaster. Huge cooperatives
replaced small communes, and the infamous backyard steel furnaces which
produced unusable steel, were built in order to produce vast amounts of
steel.

By 1963, the disastrous effects
of the Great Leap Forward, compounded by bad weather in much of the country,
became too clear to ignore. CCP leadership backed away from the idea of
huge collectives and once again gave land back to the peasants. However,
it was not until the mid-1960s that the country was back on its feet.

Beginning
in 1966, China was once again rocked by revolution. The Cultural Revolution
was ultimately the product of Mao’s desire to purge the party of all corrupt
cadres and consolidate his power base. His troops in this revolution were
the Red Guards. University and middle school students formed Red Guard
units on their campuses. They were called upon to "bombard the headquarters"
and hunt out all subversive elements not adhering to Mao Zedong Thought,
as his ideology was known. Thousands of people - party cadres, the wealthy,
former KMT supporters, intellectuals, businessmen etc. - were accused
of being a "capitalist" or a "revisionist". Often
violent struggle sessions were held against the accused and confessions
extracted. Thousands of party members were purged and sent to hard labor
camps. In inciting revolution, Mao hoped to train the younger generation
to be visionaries and trigger revolutionary sentiment among the older
generation who were getting too "soft". The Red Guards were
called upon to carry our campaigns such as ridding Chinese culture of
the Four Olds - old ideas, old customs, old habits and old culture.

By 1967, the violence had
gotten out of control. Schools and Universities were shut down and most
of the teachers were either in disgrace or at hard labor camps. In the
Red Guards’ quest to destroy the Four Olds, many historic sites had been
ransacked and priceless artifacts destroyed. The Red Guards had devolved
into gangs fighting each other in the streets. Each faction claimed to
represent the true interpretation Mao Zedong Thought as quoted in his
little red book. Mao’s personality cult reached its all time high in 1967-1968.

Once it became apparent that
the Red Guards were beyond his control, Mao called in the People’s
Liberation Army (PLA) to quell the fighting. Order had to be forcibly
restored. With the majority of schools closed, teachers disgraced and
the Red Guards disillusioned after being told to disband, Mao sent millions
of former Red Guards to the countryside. Nominally, the students were
to be re-educated by the peasants, the cornerstone of the communist revolution.
However, Mao was, in effect, exiling them once they had served his purpose.

Although
the violent phase of the Cultural Revolution lasted only until late 1968,
the Cultural Revolution did not end until 1976. Until then, China’s citizens
were called upon to carry out campaign after campaign aimed at exposing
rightist tendencies in the Party. Throughout the 10 years of the Cultural
Revolution thousands of party leaders were sent into exile or imprisoned.
In 1969, Deng Xiaoping was imprisoned and forced to perform menial
labor. He was rehabilitated in 1971, however, he was again declared a
rightist in the final months of the Cultural Revolution and was only brought
back to power after Mao’s death in September 1976.

Although the Red Guards decried
western culture as bourgeois and rightist, and during the Cultural Revolution
western influences were forbidden, the early 1970s say a new era of friendship
begin between the United States and China. In 1972, Nixon paid
a state visit to China in the hopes of bettering relations. It was as
a consequence of this visit that the United States signed an agreement
stipulating that they would recognize the Mainland and not Taiwan as the
only government of China.

The Cultural Revolution ended
finally with Mao’s death and the arrest of the Gang of Four in
1976. The Gang of Four, part of Mao’s inner circle and led by Mao’s wife,
Jiang Qing, had tried to keep the fires of revolution burning in China.
They had tried to position themselves as successors to Mao. In 1976, they
were arrested and each eventually sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Once the Gang of Four had
been disposed of, Mao’s handpicked successor, Hua Guofeng emerged
as China’s new leader. He was not well received. China’s citizens were
disaffected with him and were eager to see a more moderate leader, rather
than one who would blindly continue Mao’s policies. They called for the
reinstatement of Deng Xiaoping.

Once
in power, Deng moved quickly away from Mao’s radical policies. Reform,
not revolution was to be the new path. It was, however, reform in the
economic and not the political sphere. Though Deng set out to modernize
industry, agriculture, science and defense, he did not tolerate calls
for democracy.

Deng set out to improve the
Chinese economy. He de-collectivized the communes and introduced the household
responsibility system. Under this system, farmers were allowed to
sell their surplus crops on the open market. Agricultural production immediately
rose.

In the cities, Deng opened
China’s markets to the west. Joint ventures were formed and competition
increased efficiency. The first half of the 1980s was a time of dramatic
economic growth in China.

Socially and culturally,
gone were the drab blue Mao suits of the Cultural Revolution era. Western
fashions were no longer forbidden, indeed they were enthusiastically embraced.
Students were allowed to study abroad and intellectuals were encouraged
to exchange ideas with foreign scholars.

Deng’s famous words – for
which he was imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution – "I don’t
care if the cat is white or black as long as it catches mice", highlights
Deng’s pragmatic approach to economic policy. Market forces were allowed
to determine what goods were produced and western production methods experimented
with. These policies vastly improved the standing of many of China’s citizens.

Jiang Zemin, who succeeded
Deng after his death in 1997, has carried on with Deng’s commitment to
reform. The pursuit of a "market economy with Chinese characteristics"
seems to be working well for China. China is a huge market with equally
huge economic potential, and it is growing fast. The state is retreating
ever more from areas of private life. People are now allowed to chose
where they live and work. The private sector makes up about a 1/3 of the
economy, and privatization of state-owned companies is continuing in force.

In 1997,
China regained control of Hong Kong, the former British colony.
Hong Kong has retained a great deal of autonomy under the "one country,
two systems" principle. Early in March 2000, Macau, the former
Portuguese colony was, without incident, handed back to China.

At the dawn of the 21st century
China is poised to enter the new millenium in force. Her expected entry
into the World Trade Organization in the near future will only brighten
her long-term economic prospects. The vote by the United States Congress
to grant China Permanent Normal Trading Relations signals a commitment
from each side to treat the other as a partner rather than an adversary.
As events in China unfold, the only certainty is that China will be a
force that must be reckoned with